Premier’s staff felt forced to ‘ignore rules’ on government flights

Darcy Henton, Calgary Herald08.08.2014

Auditor general Merwan Saher found former premier Alison Redford flouted aircraft fleet policies when she brought her daughter along on 50 flights, when she flew for personal convenience and when she used it to attend eight party functions around the province last year.Greg Southam
/ Edmonton Journal

Auditor general Merwan Saher found it costs the provincial government nearly $4-million more to fly in government aircraft than on commercial or charter flights.Rick MacWilliam
/ Edmonton Journal

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EDMONTON — Alison Redford enlisted government planes for personal and PC party use during her 29 months in the premier’s office and the money she has repaid doesn’t cover the cost of the flights, says Alberta’s auditor general.

In a report released Thursday, Merwan Saher said Redford flouted aircraft fleet policies when she brought her daughter along on 50 flights, when she flew for personal convenience and when she used it to attend eight party functions around the province last year.

Saher said there was no oversight of the premier’s use of government aircraft and no one to say ‘no.’

“No public servant, not even a premier, should be excused from vigilant oversight of their compliance with policies and processes designed both to protect the public interest and themselves from bad judgment,” Saher said in the report.

The auditor general reported that the former premier’s staff scurried after the fact to arrange meetings with local officials to justify flights on government aircraft to destinations including Jasper and Vancouver.

“We concluded that there was a greater personal time component to these trips than a government business component,” Saher said in the report.

While the former premier frequently took government planes when it was not appropriate or when available commercial flights were significantly cheaper, she disavowed responsibility for those decisions, Saher said.

He told reporters the influence of the premier’s office was “profound” and staff felt “trapped” into “ignoring the rules to fulfil the requests from the premier’s office in a way that avoided leaving the premier with personal responsibility for those decisions.”

Redford requested the auditor general review her expenses and use of the province’s $25-million fleet before she resigned as premier in March.

The former premier could not be reached for comment, but in a statement Wednesday — when she resigned as MLA for Calgary-Elbow — said she would not be commenting any further on the issue.

The province’s own analysis last year showed it costs the government nearly $4-million more to fly in government aircraft than on commercial or charter flights, the auditor general found.

Highlighting several costly Redford flights as examples, the auditor general recommended the province stop using government aircraft for out-of-province flights.

He noted Redford was booked on a $1,252 commercial flight to attend a December 2012 conference in Scottsdale, Ariz., but flew instead by government plane at a cost of $10,684.

“We found no documentation to explain why the government aircraft was used when a commercial flight was already paid for,” Saher noted in his report.

Redford flew to a premiers meeting in Niagara-on-the-Lake in July 2013 at a cost of $13,892, accompanied by her daughter, Sarah, and her daughter’s friend, because “it was more convenient,” the report said.

Sarah also flew on government aircraft twice without the premier and was accompanied four times by a friend, the report said.

Although Redford reimbursed the treasury $3,156 for the four trips and the trip to Vancouver to attend a family funeral, Saher told reporters he felt the amount paid was “insufficient.”

The auditor general also reported 12 occasions where the premier’s office reserved seats on Redford flights for phantom passengers to prevent other elected officials or senior bureaucrats from flying with the premier.

“The result of block booking is an unjustifiable additional cost to the system,” he told reporters.

Saher said the premier’s staff arranged government announcements to coincide with party functions in communities around the province to justify using government planes to fly PC MLAs to the events.

But auditors found government aircraft used to transport PC MLAs to three party functions were not held in conjunction with any official government events.

The PC party announced Thursday it would reimburse the provincial treasury $6,500 for those three party events, but blamed its former leader for her decision to use government aircraft rather than a party charter flight.

Saher called for more clarity in the fleet-use policy and better oversight. He said the ministry also needs to explain why the extra cost of operating an aircraft fleet is necessary.

Finance Minister Doug Horner told reporters Thursday he would move quickly to clarify the rules for using government aircraft and provide better oversight of the premer’s office, but he said it wasn’t his job to enforce the policy, even though his department has responsibility for the fleet.

“I absolutely support tightening up that policy,” he said.

Horner said the fleet is needed.

“There is a tremendous value here that I think Albertans derive from having members of their government show up,” he said.

Horner estimated 90 per cent of the 120 communities government aircraft fly into are not accessible by commercial airlines.

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